Justice For the 16 Year Old

Ruth Bader Ginsburg High School cordially invites you to the Class of 2011 High School Reunion!

May 29th, 2021

The banner on the invitation was as pretentious as the people that attended. If the people I'd gone to high school were anything like the Supreme Court Justice, I’d want to go. Since that was not the case, I closed the invitation.

Ellis Williamson, the British empire representative, peeked in through the door and held up a finger. 

I nodded in acknowledgement. Trouble waits for no one, and I swiftly sprinted to the meeting room.

"Hello, Penelope," Ellis said. 

I took a seat while realizing everyone was watching me.

Sebastian, the French and Spanish representative and my best friend, looked at me. His eyes were gleaming, and his brows were slightly turned in. 

I opened the folder and closed it immediately after seeing the name of the target.

Michael Devine.

"No."

"States," Ellis started, "you were essentially born for this role."

I rarely broke composure. But they expected too much of me by asking me to go anywhere near Michael Devine. 

I shook my head. "No. Are you crazy? No, no, no."

"States, sit down, please."

"When you hired me, Ellis, you told me I'd never have to deal with him."

"He's a key person in the bigger transactions in the illegal arms trade in the States to literally every militant group." 

I closed my eyes. "There's no doubt he's involved?"

"His father worked with Drake Lester. Ever since Michael took over the family business, the arms trafficking has only increased. He will be at your reunion during the next deal."

Ellis was right. This was for me to do.

I opened my eyes. "Fine."

I picked up the folder and walked out. 

#

A knock at my office door interrupted me from my seething anger.

"Come in," I said, monotonously.

Sebastian popped his head in. "Want to talk about it?" His words were laced with his thick French accent. 

"Nothing to talk about."

He walked in and sat on the couch, patting the space next to him. 

I moved to sit. "I didn't need this complication."

"I wish I could go with you to help, but my mission with the Stefanos is almost over..." 

I nodded. "It's fine. I'd rather handle this alone anyway."

"Are you okay?" 

"Yeah."

He smiled. "I don't believe you."

I shrugged. "I've survived worse odds."

"Like talking to Mr. Ukraine?" He raised an eyebrow. 

I groaned. "Don't bring him up."

Ukraine and the Slavic countries' representative, Anatoly, was a very quiet and attractive man. He had the most piercing blue eyes and the nicest brown hair. He was always kind in conversation and lethal in battle. He was so cool; his favorite mode of transportation was his motorcycle. Everytime I talked to him, I seemed to just trip over my words. He probably thought I was inept. We’d been on some missions together, but I'd never talked to him without my heart overreacting.

“Why wasn’t he at the meeting today?” I asked.

“He’s been super busy dissolving rivalries between gangs in Russia.”

“Glad he wasn't around for my outburst.”

He laughed. “Hey. He may like you, too. You just don’t talk to him, so how would you know?”

“You’re just trying to distract me,” I accused. 

He sighed. “I just want to make sure you'll be okay.”

"Let's be real, Seb, nothing about this will be okay."

He smiled at me ruefully. "Good luck, dear."

#

The little black dress was usually the way to go when it came to attracting men like Michael Devine. They favored the aesthetic of the seductress, so it’s exactly what I wore.

I knew my mission: get the chip from his burner phone and find the location where Drake Lester’s people would be meeting that night. Keep the phone away after I got it, so he couldn’t warn Lester. The authorities would be at the place where the weapons would be shipped after I sent the information to the society. 

I looked in the mirror. I was not ready to be a seductress to the man that laid a hand on me when I refused to sleep with him. 

As a 16 year old, I was small and innocent. I caught his attention, and we got close. The rising football star liked me over the cheerleader that liked him. I just didn't realise how many scars dating someone with more power than I had would leave. 

However, the face reflected was not powerless. For the vulnerable 16 year old, I would defend myself and fight back.

Before I could do anything that would make me bow out of going, I called an Uber. Driving would have been faster, but I was fighting the urge to flip my car over to avoid having to see these people again.

On the road, I was lost in thought, trying to analyze my feelings. I wasn't afraid of bullies; I feared the trauma that they could elicit. I knew the chances they became genuinely good people were slim. People don't really change in their true essence.

I took a deep breath to regain my composure as I arrived. Slowly, I stepped out of the car, looking at the same building I spent 4 years at a decade ago. I walked in, smelling the familiar sweat and cheap body spray of pubescent teens. There were few people in the hallways, but I beelined towards the auditorium.

Walking in, everyone in the room stopped to look at me, the girl that had the glow up. I noticed from my periphery that I attracted Michael's attention immediately. I walked towards the food table. Fruit punch. I poured some into a cup and took a sip. Indeed, boring liquid sugar. I looked around the room and faked accidentally making eye contact with Michael. He started walking towards me. 

"Hello, Penelope," he said when he reached me.  

"Michael," I responded. 

"I would like to formally apologize for everything that happened...when we were...here," he said. 

There was very little sincerity in his eyes. Instead, his eyes shone with desire. The audacity. I suppressed the anger that threatened to build up. 

I nodded. "Thank you."

"Can I make it up to you with a dance?"

"Maybe later?" I said sweetly. "I just got here and need to do the rounds." 

"Fair enough." He nodded and stepped away. 

I needed time to do some recon. The man slept with phones under his pillow. Where was he keeping it now?

A girl in a nice red dress approached me.

"Hi, Penelope! I'm Daisy Flynn! We used to sit next to each other in English!"

I remembered her. Very loud girl. 

"Hello," I said politely. 

"Want to sit with us?" she asked, pointing to the perfect table to keep him in my eyeline no matter where he went. 

I smiled. "Okay."

We went to sit at the populated table. I kept my focus on Michael. He pulled the most current iPhone from his inner pocket. It couldn't be his burner. He texted something on his phone before putting it away in the same pocket. But there was a slight maneuvering to get the iPhone in. The other phone had to be in there, too. 

The positioning was hard but not impossible to get. If I was going to dance with him, I could inch the phone out but he may feel it. Easiest method would be to get the phone while it was out of the pocket. 

Coincidentally, he put a flip phone to his ear before heading outside.  

"Going to the restroom," I muttered quickly before getting up and following. I noticed him going to an empty classroom. I hid under the window and tried to listen.

"...can't handle it then maybe we should try again on another day…" he said.

There was silence for a minute. 

"Just don't fuck me over, Lester. If I hear from you again tonight, I'll seriously reconsider this arrangement." 

I heard the phone clap closed and heard him step towards the door. I couldn't let him put it back into his pocket. I stood up quickly and launched myself on him, the phone sliding over the floor as we both fell, me on top of him. 

"Michael! I'm so sorry!" I switched the phones quickly before I gave him the replacement.

His eyes softened slightly after noticing me. "It's fine. Just an old phone I keep around. Belonged to my old man." 

"I'm sorry. I was trying to get to the teacher's restroom because I assume it's cleaner. But no luck." I pointed at the restroom across us. "I'm stuck with that one."

He got up and took my hand to help me on my feet. "Don't slip."

I laughed before heading in that direction. 

"Penelope," he called out, "you owe me a dance." 

I nodded and half ran into the restroom. I took the phone and looked through the messages and recent calls. It was all blocked. I used a cable to transfer the memory of the burner to a cloud by using the wifi of my phone. IT was on standby and a blocked number sent a thumbs up to my phone after some minutes passed. They got it. 

I shoved everything into my bag and returned to the auditorium before anyone could suspect anything.

As I walked in, my phone buzzed. It was Sebastian.

You're welcome.

I didn't know what he meant. I looked around and saw Michael who waved me over. I would have started to move, but footsteps approached from the entrance. My eyes widened when I saw who it was. 

Anatoly was here, walking towards me. He wore a suit that matched my black dress. Reaching out, he tipped my face up and kissed my lips. 

"Sorry I'm late, love," he said loudly before taking my hand and leading me to the dance floor where some people were dancing. 

I felt my cheeks warm as he placed a hand on my waist and started leading us into the dance.

"So...did they send you?" I asked him, quietly.

He laughed before pulling me to his chest. "Well, yes and no."

I wrapped my arms around him. "No?"

"Remember Anastasia? Mission 25208?"

"Yeah. Very hard mission." Anastasia had been abducted by a local gang that the police didn't dare to mess with. I was in charge of getting her out and almost didn’t make it out alive. 

"She's my younger sister."

I looked up at him. "Seriously?"

He nodded. "You volunteered to take on that mission. I wasn't allowed to participate; if they saw me, she would have been killed immediately. Ellis...he knew you would take it. He said...he said you would do anything for me. I told him not to tell you who Ana was because I didn't want you to feel obligated..." 

"I would do anything for any of you. The society is family to me." 

"So I am not...special?"

I could hear my heartbeat in my ears. 

"Why are you here?" I whispered. 

"Because I wanted to be here for you." 

I reached up to kiss him, not as an act but a need. Before he could kiss me back, I heard screams and the cocking of a gun. 

"Where's my phone, bitch?" I heard Michael growl behind me. 

Anatoly arms tensed around me, telling me Michael would have to rip me from him before he would let go. 

"Trust me," I whispered.

He dropped his hands slowly while I lifted mine. 

"I gave it to you, remember?"

Michael pulled my hair harshly until he had an arm around my neck and the gun pointed at my head. 

"Don't play stupid with me, cock-tease."

"You really are still an abusive asshole," I replied. He tightened his grip on my neck, not quite blocking the appropriate airways but making it harder to breathe. 

"Where is the phone, Penelope?!" he yelled. 

A chill ran down my spine. The same tone of that night echoed now in my head. Air seemed in short supply, not because he was holding me in a way that made air flow hard but because I felt a panic attack building up. 

He dragged me with him to my purse where he dropped everything on the ground. Placing the gun on the table, he found the phone and grabbed it. 

He started to open the phone when I raised my body and used gravity to flip him to the ground. He lost grip of the phone, and I tried to reach it. He grabbed my leg and sat up to drag me away. My fingertips almost reached it, but he threw me across the floor. 

"Get the phone out of here," I yelled at Anatoly. 

He launched himself towards the phone, Michael nearly getting a grip of it until he heard Anatoly come for him. 

Michael was uncoordinated but heavy. The man took hits for a living as a football player before going to inherit his father's company. I got up and ran towards the phone while Michael was distracted. People ran to get out of the auditorium since they had a moment to move. I got my hands on it before noticing Anatoly and Michael. 

This wasn't his fight. 

I launched myself at Michael from behind, tossing the phone to Anatoly, who caught it. 

"Go," I yelled. 

He hesitated. 

"Now! If he makes the call to stop everything, we lose," I said as Michael tried to get me down. 

"I can break it!"

"The phone will alert Lester if it's been destroyed." I felt like I was on a mechanical bull. "Go NOW."

Anatoly ran. I was grateful he wasn't around to see Michael slam me on the ground by throwing himself on his back. I felt my head split.

The decade-old anger ran through me, hot and powerful. I got back on my feet and knocked him against a table. He landed face up. I started punching him like he did me. I kneed him in the abdomen, and he crumpled. I did it again. And again. And again.

Then he started laughing. I slowed, confused. In a swift motion, he pulled the tablecloth and grabbed the gun he'd placed down. He didn't hesitate to pull the trigger. 

I launched myself at his arm to fight him for the gun. We rolled on the floor, and I tried to point it down. There were few bullets left, so when it was aimed at a wall with padding on brick, I shot the remaining bullets.

Then I was on top, and I locked my legs next to his waist and punched his head, side to side. Finally, an uppercut to the chin knocked him out. I got up and just dumped my belongings back into my bag. Running out of the building, the adrenaline wavered; I was bleeding, but I couldn't stop. Outside, I saw old schoolmates, police cars and Anatoly on his motorcycle.

The officers waived me through.

"He shouldn't have any more bullets left," I said to them as Anatoly helped me on his bike. He wrapped a rope around us, attaching me to him.  

I wrapped my arms around his waist. 

"Is the deal happening?" I yelled as he drove. 

I could feel him nod. 

"Are we going there right now?" I asked. 

I couldn't hear a response. The blur of the light was beautiful, like watching a rainbow. I locked my fingers together and laid my head against his back before the lights faded. 

#

When I awoke, I was holding someone's hand. Anatoly was next to me on my bed, sleeping, his fingers intertwined with mine. 

My eyes widened. When the fuck did this happen?

I looked around the room. There was a heart rate monitor and an IV with fluids. I raised my right arm to touch the source of the pressure on my head, the movement causing intense pain from my ribcage. I moaned, causing Anatoly's eyes to open. He focused on my face and smiled. "You're awake."

I lowered my arm slowly. "What happened to me?"

"You got shot...and you've broken some bones."

"How...when did this happen?"

His eyebrows drew in. "You don't remember anything?" 

I shook my head and groaned again from the pain. 

He sat up. "You don't remember the mission." 

"No." 

"I'll be right back." 

He leapt out of the bed and room. He came back with a doctor to examine me.

"You had a very severe concussion. There was a lot of swelling in your brain. Your memory will likely come back once the swelling is gone," the doctor said. He turned to Anatoly while I tried to remember what happened to result in him holding my hand. 

When the doctor was gone, Anatoly sat on my bed. 

"If you want me to leave, I can call Sebastian to come take care of you," he said, quietly. 

I wiggled to my side before patting the bed. 

"No. I want you to tell me what happened." I felt pretty ballsy and took his hand. 

He laid down and told me everything. 

"Wow," was all I could say. 

"Yeah," he replied.

"Wait. There's one part I don't get," I started. "If you were going on the mission, why didn't you just come to the reunion from the start?"

"Well, it wasn't my mission. I knew it was going to be hard for you and wanted to be there. But Ellis and Sebastian thought that you didn't need me to be a distraction. I could only come in after you sent the info."

Good point. "Do you only like me because I saved your sister?"

"No. I like you because you're selfless. Strong. Capable. And because according to Sebastian, you're crazy about me."

I smiled and inched closer to him. "How long have you liked me?"

He laughed and kissed me tenderly, swallowing any further questions I could ask.